How China beat everyone to be world leader in electric vehicles
China used for years as it turned into the biggest EV market on Earth. Beijing’s success is breathtaking. EVs accounted for a quarter of all passenger cars sold in China last year, far ahead of the roughly one in seven in the US and one in eight in Europe.
And the pace is accelerating. HSBC expects the EV penetration rate in the world’s second-largest economy to reach 90% by 2030. Including plug-in hybrids, China’s clean-car sales hit 5.67 million in 2022, more than half of all global deliveries.
The country will account for about 60% of the world’s 14.1 million new passenger EV sales this year, BloombergNEF predicts. It’s not just buyers. Manufacturing is booming too — Chinese brands account for about half of all EVs sold globally, HSBC analysts said in a recent note.
Sufficient infrastructure obviously helps with EV adoption. China, which has the largest charging network in the world, added 649,000 public chargers in 2022 alone, which is more than 70% of all installations done globally that year. Encouraged by all the progress made, EV makers have swarmed China with new models, and a price war has flared this year as companies try to get ahead of rivals.
Analysts expect some consolidation is looming for the industry in China. Here’s a closer look at China’s carrot-and-stick approach to cultivating EVs:The Carrots
Consumer Subsidies: A program that ran for a decade reimbursed EV Buyers with as much as 60,000 yuan ($8,375). Although the national subsidies ended in 2022, local governments in places like Shanghai continue to dole out rebates of up to 10,000 yuan. Read more on economictimes.indiatimes.com
